Thanks for sharing that detailed memory. "Most cool!"
Indeed. I enjoyed visualizing it.
I wish I had better photos inside these places. It was so dark, plus any photo could never take in the whole scene - it was so confined, beams, columns, there were no good sight lines or vantage points.
There were pilgrims from all over Tibet crowding in, going from room to room, shrine to shrine, each one praying, adding butter to the candles, and leaving scarves and other offerings, monks meditating or hurrying here and there. There were shrines everywhere, some main rooms had one huge statue, or a dozen, other rooms had row after row of smaller figures, each with it's own cubby, each one in full dress, surrounded by candles, offerings, scarves, miscellanea, photos of the Dalai Lama, and so on, curtains, murals, little side rooms, stairs taking us up to more levels until finally the roof. All a crowded jumble.
There were a few man made caves that had shrines, monks and pilgrims there as well, the walls were carved into base reliefs of buddhas (I think), and brightly painted.
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loginCheck this monk's drum hanging from the ceiling:
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loginThere's probably 20 ''banned'' photos of the Dalai Lama in this shrine, plus a partially covered postcard sized image of the equally banned Tibet flag (red and blue rays emanating from a yellow sun, lower right):
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